Effect of sympathetic nervous system on cardiac function

Abstract

Heart failure (HF) is accompanied by an autonomic imbalance that is always characterized by increased sympathetic activity and depressed vagal activity. The imbalance of the activity of the sympathetic nervous system and vagal activity leads to further worsening of heart failure. This is the underlying mechanism by which β-adrenergic antagonists have been used in clinic to slow progression of disease, improve symptoms, and increase patient survival. Additionally, both animal experiments and clinical studies showed that the cardiac sympathetic nerve block could effectively improve the function of heart failure, and showed that vagal stimu-lation had beneficial effects on heart failure, and may be a possible novel therapy for heart failure. Key words: Sympathetic nervous; Vagal nervous; β-receptor; Heart failure; Cardiac sympathetic denervation; Vagal stimulation